Catching up ... best pictures lately.

Life has sped by since Thanksgiving. Sometimes I want to just pick up and move somewhere where we could hide from the clock.

Here are the best pictures of the last few weeks:

















The stories behind the pictures that uploaded in no chronological order...happy kids/happy cousins on Thanksgiving 2011....chubby 3 month old who found his thumb, smiles a lot and sleeps through the night...two sisters who spend a lot of mornings together creating pretend worlds and fun bath times before PM kindergarten...and a most memorable Friday during Advent where only the kids and I snuck away to our family beach cabin JUST for the day with cookie making, movie watching and rock throwing as the highlites of our "cabin day".

In a time that bursts with memory making, stories bred out of the speed we live life this time of year and reflections that stir my heart when I sit alone and ponder the greatest gift the world has ever been given...my blogging/writing mind composes daily. I want to show you what we are doing and tell you how I am feeling. But the life I lead is so full right now that it leaves little time for the words to be written down. I'm sure you feel the same. Time to turn off the Christmas tree lights and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a new day!

Advent at our house...

First off, I want to explain how I fell off the blogging everyday in November bandwagon. Not too complicated. I was doing it with two of my favorite people and when they gave up, I did too. It's more fun when you have people holding you accountable. Plus, I still had things to say but it is time consuming and the approaching holidays started looking me straight in the face.

Speaking of Christmas... Last year I loved taking a real intentional approach at activities during Advent. We did all the things we typically do like bake cookies and drive around to see all the lit houses but added more planned out items like a few art projects and family game night and caroling and a Polar Express night complete with a necklace I made them with a bell hanging on it.

This year started out the same as last. The first of December came fast and I didn't have my plan laid out. It takes me a week of flying by the seat of my pants day by day until I finally sit down and make my list. So far I've added a few elements that are meant to enhance character building and intentional teaching of the real meaning of Christmas.

We've been dealing with some bad attitudes and naughty (not nice) behavior and it just didn't feel right to be planning all these fluff activities with out some reinforcement of values. So for our first art activity they painted Christmas trees on poster boards and then decorated (glitterized) construction paper ornaments. (side note - don't clean your hardwood floors and then do a glitter project later in the day!) The trees are now hanging in the dining room and they get to put an ornament on whenever they are "caught" having good manners and using kind words. So far so good.

Then last night I found a great site for the addition of devotions to our nights in December. Everything I found was too wordy..too adult. This is 25 pages to color with scripture from the nativity story.

http://www.dltk-bible.com/advent/index.htm

I made each girl a folder with all the pages in it. Last night we did four of the pages and then they colored away - all of us picnic style under the Christmas tree. It was so perfect because as they colored all around my legs I quizzed them about the names of the people and practiced memorizing one of the scriptures. They said funny things like, "I think the angel was named Annie" and Ruby pronounces Joseph - Jofess. We ended the evening at the dining room table with a new Christmas puzzle and Christmas Bingo. I don't foresee us doing the devotions every night but a few nights each week.

It is harder to get the dinner dishes and other chores done when I spend my evening time like above. But oh so worth it.

The other thing we are throwing in this year are a few days where we plan "Random Acts of Kindness" and go about stealth mode to make someones day better without any recognition.

My dad used to always annoy us with his favorite saying, "Prior planning prevents poor performance". Oh, I hate to say it but it is so true, especially with kids. I'm not good at it. I bumble through too many things. Spontaneous, not disciplined, well meaning me. Sometimes that model can breed the best unexpected moments of joy. But good parenting really takes both.

I'd love to leave you pictures but this is as good as it gets for now.

November 28 ~ Sugar and Spice and Everything Ruby

This little almost 4 year old has recently stole my heart all over again. I don't know if it's the book I've been reading, having our last baby, or just her...but I just want to squeeze her in hugs and freeze time. She is in a really cute phase or maybe like I said above, I'm just noticing the cute stuff more?! Here are some things I really want to remember:

A month or so ago, she was at the home of one of our favorite babysitters and on their way back home, she said to Lacey, "I bet you had fun with me today because I'm so pretty". Ha!

She also has an unreasonable fear of bears lately. This at times is cute and most of the time is super annoying. She follows me everywhere and screams bloody murder if she can't find me for just a second. We go over again and again that no bears live in our city...but alas it doesn't seem like reasoning is helping.

This leads us to two other funny moments. I was singing a song to her the other night at bedtime and I interjected my own funny lyrics about "no bears, pirates or wolves are around"...she stopped me and said that "actually mom I like wolves". Okay then.

And supposedly, "I'm only scared on Tuesdays mom"...so every morning she wakes up and asks which day it is. An interesting attempt at bravery that doesn't seem to add up since she really is scared daily. Maybe she's just not used to her sisters being gone.

She can be really whiny and sometimes have an attitude that is new to her personality, and having no naps can make the late afternoon miserable for her and I...but over-all, she has good manners, the sweetest smile, the funniest big girl facial expressions and precious little talking voice.

Oh, and my ultimate favorite Ruby story lately was realizing that she asks to be the "tall sister" every time she plays house (her favorite pretend game). I love that in her little world she views the oldest sister as the "tall one". And even more that she must look up to her big sisters to want to pretend to be them:)

Our friends just found out they are having a third girl and it made me think of how happy I am that we had Ms. Ruby. She is her own unique person...and Mike and I are both so smitten.

Did I mention I think she's a little beauty?

November 25 ~ I Hope He Knows

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday..he would have been 62. I guess that is one thing I've learned; when you lose someone dear, time is marked on their birthday and the day they passed. It still feels really strange that he is gone. I think I reached to call him three times on Thanksgiving to wish him a happy one...

This year I would want him to know how well I am being taken care of by another dad.

Dear Dad,

I hope you know that this summer when I got a speeding ticket while caravanning to McCall, Idaho, Mike's dad drove me the rest of the way and made some judgements about the police officer just to make me feel better (even though it was my fault and I knew it).

I hope you know that this summer when I was nesting, Mike's dad came over at my request to fix a lot of things that were broken.

I hope you know that when I was 38 weeks pregnant, Mike's dad called to tell me he was sending their house cleaner over to clean my house - - because he didn't want me to work too hard in my state.

I hope you know that I get out of the blue phone calls from Mike's dad just asking how I am doing.

I hope you know that when I got a flat tire two days ago, Mike's dad came to pick up my van and take it to Les Schwabs. Two days later, he saved the day again when he took it to the tire shop and purchased me four much needed NEW tires and had it detailed. He gave me a bit of a hard time for not having any gas in it when he took it from me...but you would have done the same...it must be a "dad thing".

He and you might get a laugh out of the fact that sometimes I lose my keys or get places late or ..... but I know that when I do silly things like that, it doesn't really matter because I had your heart and I have his too.

How did I get so blessed to have been given the dad that I needed then and the dad that I need now?

Well, Dad you BOTH have my heart for now and forever.

You don't have to worry about me...but you knew that already didn't you?

Love, Rose


Dear Mike,

Thanks for taking such great care of me!

Stefanie Christine

November 26 ~ Creative Exercise

In our wonderful green northwest, the indoor months can be quite lengthy. What I mean is kids and adults get cabin fever often!

There are just so many art projects and movies and toys to play with and then a mom has to get creative. So, we resort to obstacle courses around here. I've gotten pretty good at constructing really fun ones too. We like to turn on the dance music for extra excitement and motivation to move fast. Sometimes they even keep track of how many times they have gone around with playing cards or little toys. Then it becomes a competition...and don't all kids love to win?!!

Last year around this time, Becca and I must have done a kid swap and Tobin, Jabe and Phoebe had a blast with our obstacle course antics:) Great for gettin' wiggles out:)

November 24 ~ Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Thanks to my sister, Lesley and my sis-in-law, Meghann for purchasing me a groupon at Yuen Lui last spring!

I got this beautiful picture out of the deal - 1 8x10, 2 3x5's, 6 wallets and one digital photo.

I'm tempted to use it for my Christmas card, but Henry has changed so much since we did this session.

Today I am most thankful for these four babies in my life...

November 23 ~ Stow-aways

Here are those lyrics hinted at in the last post:

Home, home on the range
Where Daddy and Henry hunt bucks
Where we hide on plateaus with our scopes and bino's
And we wait for those big bucks to show

Repeat til baby stops crying....

November 22 - Lost and Found

Yesterday I lost all the pictures on my computer due to a nasty virus. Are you familiar with the term "depths of despair"? That's how I felt. Today the computer guy in town, victoriously cleaned my computer and salvaged all my files. And my heart soared. I'm sure you've felt that way before too; when something very special to you was lost and the hope to find it was a dismal at best....and then there was a minor miracle and you FOUND that special item. I felt like celebrating and I definitely looked at all my pictures again - happy for each one of them retrieved.

There were Disneyland pictures, summer at the lake pictures, birthday party pictures, delivery pictures, newborn pictures and Thanksgiving and Christmas last year too. All day yesterday I kept telling myself, "you have your memories still and your blogged pictures too".."it's not the end of the world Stefanie". Self-talk helps. All those things were true and yet I still wouldn't let go of the possibility that I would get them back.

I don't think you've seen these ones of Henry. He looks so tiny in them now. I can't believe how he's grown. At 2 months he had gained about 7 lbs since birth, and he hasn't slowed down. He is smiling a lot and tries to babble, but it seems like the girls were much better at getting the coos out. He just started sleeping through the night (do I dare even write that in fear that it doesn't stay that way for long?) He loves his swing the best out of all sleeping spots. When he is awake he doesn't love to be on the ground on his blanket for long. I still hold him a lot, and sometimes I even manage to rock him and do my computer job at the same time. He looks a LOT like his daddy now. And his favorite song is Home on The Range - although Mike changed the words to include hunting terms. Who can blame the guy who's been putting up with Barbie movies and ballet performances for many years? The girls love on him and fight over him all day long. It's a wonderful problem to have as a mother. I'm so thankful I could give them a baby to ooh and ahh over. We love him so much!